Leave it to Don Emerson, the mad sound man of Galveston, to lead me on a trip down memory lane, and set me off on another music-history lesson! A few days ago, Don shoved a copy of the Les Paul & Friends CD through my mail slot. Here was The Master himself playing on tracks with young guys like Kenny Wayne Shepard, Steve Lukather, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Billy Gibbons, Neal Schon, Jeff Beck, Richie Sambora, Buddy Guy, Keith Richards, Rick Derringer, Johnny Rzeznik, Barry Goldstein, Hiram Bullock, Steve Miller, and Joe Perry!!

Listening to these cuts set me off on a search to refresh my memory on what I already knew about Les Paul, and to find out more about what I didn't know. I knew that he was a 5-time Grammy winner, with several gold records, and a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; but I didn't know that Les was also a member of the Inventor's Hall of Fame!

Les was born on 09 June 1915, so he is currently doing his weekly gigs at the Iridium Club in Manhattan at the ripe old age of 90; and still drawing big crowds! Since he began playing professionally in 1928, at the age of 13, his career has already spanned almost eight decades!!

In the 1930s, Les was playing with the Fred Waring Orchestra, in the 1940s he was backing people like Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole, and by the 1950s, he and his wife, Mary Ford, were knocking out gold records with their own band!

In the 1930s, Les was unhappy with the sound he could create with acoustic guitars by adding pickups, and the few solid-body electric guitars then available weren't right either, so he began his other career as a self-taught electronic engineer and inventor!
 

As early as 1941, Les had built his own solid-body electric guitar, that reduced the feedback created by acoustic guitars fitted with pickups, and increased the sustain of notes and cords. In the early 1950s, he finally convinced the Gibson Guitar Company to produce the electric guitar of his design. One of his first patents, on electric guitar design was applied for on 09 July 1952.

Les also went on to pioneer the use of effects such as delay, echo and reverb, that are the standards of today's music business.

His other major contribution to the recording industry was his invention of multi-track recording or overdubbing. He wanted to be able to record each instrument and vocal part separately, and to record on his own, away from a recording studio. In 1952, Les convinced the Ampex Corporation to build his design for the first 8-track recorder. Since then, eight tracks has grown to many more channels in today's recording sessions!

As I was reviewing and researching more about the life of this amazing man, I wanted to discover who really did invent the solid-body electric guitar. It appears as though a number of individuals were turning out small numbers of these guitars, in the 1930s, and Audiovox and Rickenbacker were the largest producers of that time.

After that, Gibson started manufacturing its Les Paul model at almost the same time that Leo Fender entered the market in the early 1950s with his Esquire, Broadcaster and Telecaster. Eventually, Fender's 1954 Stratocaster came to dominate the market, so Les Paul and Leo Fender definitely have had the biggest impact on the development of the instrument that changed the world!! Unfortunately, it seems to be impossible to credit any one person as the "inventor of the solid-body electric guitar".

It is interesting to remember what Rock & Roll and Blues music was like before the solid-body electric guitar came to dominate these musical genres. In the 1950s and early 1960s, vocalists and vocal groups were the prominent force in an era dominated by Elvis Presley. Does anyone know who was in his band, or the name of his lead guitar player? At that time, no one knew and no one cared!

However, by the time the British Invasion arrived, in the mid-1960s, the world had been turned upside down. Many of these bands were strongly influenced by American Blues music, and had made the electric guitar the centerpiece of their music. The first time you hear Keith's opening fuzz-tone riffs on "Satisfaction", you know that "You Ain't Nothin but a Hound Dog" has been totally eclipsed! The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, The Who, The Kinks and, of course, Pink Floyd took music from black & white to color!!

The Beatles were the primary band behind the British Invasion, but their early songs were more reminiscent of the 1950s and early 1960s vocal groups, than the other British bands mentioned above. However, as the 1960s wore on, their music began to shift to follow this trend, as they produced tunes like "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Quite a contrast to "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"!

I can NOT overstate what a powerful force, presence and influence that Les Paul has been on 20th Century music!! He helped to refine the solid-body electric guitar that now dominates popular music and offered many breakthroughs in creating and producing sound effects, and the modern recording process! Without Les Paul, we might still be living with the relatively colorless music we had before the mid-1960s!

"It has to be said, we must all own up that without Les Paul, generations of flash little punks like us would be in jail or cleaning toilets. This man, by his genius, made the road that we still travel today and, Les - you're so modest! He put the tools in our hands and was married to Mary Ford. How bad is that! I don't know how he did it. But, I'm so thankful he did." Keith Richards